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Spaghetti Cumbia frontman on how music helped him break out of his shell

Spaghetti Cumbia
Ivan Kashinsky
Spaghetti Cumbia

From Southern California to New York City, LA’s dusty western cumbia band Spaghetti Cumbia has drawn large energetic crowds, making a name for itself. But the band has never played in Phoenix. That will change this weekend.

Marcel Campos, Spaghetti Cumbia’s frontman and co-founder, says his purpose is to spread love through music, and joined The Show to discuss.

Full conversation

AMBER VICTORIA SINGER: Marcel Campos is a performer. With a long white beard and wide eyes, Campos commands attention when he's on stage. Cowbell or guiro in hand, Campos jumps, kicks and rolls around while singing. Anything to keep the crowd engaged.

You would never guess that he used to be a shy kid.

MARCEL CAMPOS: It was in junior high, one of my friends had a band, and they were doing more like Jimi Hendrix and Nirvana covers, and he said, “all we need is a singer. Do you want to sing?” And I was very shy at the time. I'm like, “I don't know, I mean,” he goes, “I heard you sing, you have a good voice.”

VICTORIA SINGER: After a bit of persuasion, Campos agreed to jam with his friend.

CAMPOS: I kind of liked it and I just kept on going back, you know, and I, I believe, doing music, broke me off my shelf because, you know, I needed to talk to people. I needed to communicate with people. I needed to look people in the eye.

VICTORIA SINGER: Around two decades later, Campos co-founded Spaghetti Cumbia, a band that blends cumbia, rock punk and western music.

CAMPOS: We're kind of like, you know, a high kind of cumbia, you know, kinda like hype music with rock and, and punkish feelings to it. And, you know, we sometimes drop a little hip hop to it. It's just a lot of fun, we create a lot of energy. It's a room full of just energy. People jumping around, dancing.

VICTORIA SINGER: Campos says his goal is to keep people dancing throughout the whole set.

CAMPOS: I don't want them to take a break. That's my thing. I understand that, you know, you gotta take a little beer break or a little water break. Oh, no, I encourage everybody to double fist because, you know, I don't want you to take a break. You're going to enjoy this from the beginning to the end.

VICTORIA SINGER: Campos and the rest of Spaghetti Cumbia will be playing at Pijama Piyama’s record release party Saturday, Nov. 16, at Walter Studios.

KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.

Amber Victoria Singer is a producer for KJZZ's The Show. Singer is a graduate of the Water Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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